


A Gift and a Curse

by AnnTheSiren



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Book VI - The Lovers, Doctor/Patient, F/F, Healing, Injury, Injury Recovery, Julian Devorak's Route, M/M, Medical Examination, On the Run, Other, Pain Kink, general apprentice, julian x mc, malak the raven - Freeform, no pronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-11
Updated: 2018-08-11
Packaged: 2019-06-25 21:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15649251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnTheSiren/pseuds/AnnTheSiren
Summary: A ~steamy~ rewrite of the vampire eel healing scene from Chapter VI Part II: A Gift and a Curse. No pronouns used.





	A Gift and a Curse

Book VI: Part 2 A Gift and a Curse

His plague mask sinks below the surface, red glass eyes glinting in the moonlight as the dark water swallows them up.

“Julian…”

Just as I’m searching for what to say to the forlorn doctor, a familiar raven screeches a warning, wings batting the air frantically as it flies past. I duck and scan around us, understanding the bird’s warning. Julian smirks.

“Guards afoot!” he barks, glancing down quickly to the water’s surface where he had tossed his mask. I follow his gaze for just a moment. The mask is gone. In its place are the vague ghostly shapes twisting in the depths of the aqueduct. “Look lively,” he says, locking eyes with me. “We’d best make tracks.”

We break into a run along the edge of aqueduct, the moon reflecting on the still surface as we watch for palace guards. We burst out of the woods and arrive at the edge of town.  
Julian is just faster than I am. When he reaches the first house, he looks back at me as he is about to duck into an alleyway. I find myself surprised that he turned to me, like he was checking on his partner in crime.

I slow down from my sprint. Just as our eyes meet, my foot lands on a wet cobblestone and flies out from beneath me. Before I have time to react, I feel my momentum carry me forward. My body slams against the edge of the reservoir wall and in an instant, I’m underwater.

Between the cloudless night and the depth of the reservoir, I can see nothing but darkness. The frigid waters of the aqueduct chill my body to the bone. My lungs burn for the air that was knocked out of me. Unthinking, I struggle frantically for the surface, my clothes clinging to me and dragging at my limbs.

Something quickly slides up my leg and past my hips. An instant too late, I remember what lives in the depths of the reservoir. Suddenly, sharp, stabbing pain in my right side makes me lose my last breath of air. I burst out of the water, gasping and writhing in pain.

I hear Julian yelling my name and I reach for him in desperation. A strong hand clamps around my wrist and heaves me out of the water. The bone-white body of the vampire eel attached to my side flashes in the moonlight, making Julian snarl. I fall down to my hands and knees on the hard stones, coughing up water as I loose feeling in my fingers. I look down to see streams of red coursing through the translucent eel as it bites down harder on my waist.

As my head swims, I can hear Julian quickly saying, “This might hurt a bit. On the count of three. One. Two-”

Before I can figure out what he’s about to do, I see two gloved hands clamp down behind the eel’s large head. I gasp and then cry out in pain as four sharp fangs tear free from my skin.

“Three,” he breaths out, eel squirming in his tight grip. 

I slump to the cobblestones as Julian tersely throws the eel back into the water. My vision blurs as a red pool grows beneath me. He looks back to me, face narrowing at the sight of my blood staining the ground. He curses under his breath.

“Up you go then.” Julian’s hands slide gently under my arms as he lifts me to my unsteady feet. I nearly lose my balance and brace myself against his chest. “Easy now,” he says with genuine concern as he wraps an arm around me for support. He gives me a mischievous grin. “I’ve got you.” If my whole body wasn’t shaking from cold and pain, I would have rolled my eyes at his playfulness.

Julian has to drag me as he tries to run. I can hardly feel my legs as I distractedly watch dark red pools trailing behind me.

He turns into an alleyway and props me against the wall.

“Can you stand?” he asks, breathing heavily as he glances around the corner for guards.  
When he looks back down at me, his eye widens. My whole body shakes as I try to hold of his arm to steady me from falling. I can barely keep my grip.

“Right. Foolish question,” he admonishes himself. His voice is low and serious. It’s a tone I haven’t heard him use before.

He nods. In one fluid motion, he lifts me into his arms and begins to run. I’m too lightheaded to protest. My head falls into the hollow of his neck as he runs. Feeling the quick pulse in his neck and hearing his breathing so close to my ear reminds me of when I searched him in my shop. Despite it all, the memory makes me smile a little in my delirium.

Julian turns down an empty alley and, panting hard, collapses to his knees with me still in his arms.

His sharp gaze turns to me, pinning me to the spot. In an instant, he changes from renegade outlaw to practiced doctor.

“Let me see that bite,” he says, tone unshaken.

His voice is somehow comforting in its sternness. My words fall short. Instead, my head falls back against his shoulder and my eyes meet his and I take a shaky, pained breath. His eyebrows furrow. He breathes out.

“I’ll have to take that as a yes.”

Julian lowers me to the ground and kneels beside me. The cobblestones should feel cool against my skin but my body is so cold that the ground feels almost warm under me.  
I mindlessly watch the red-headed doctor as his gloved hands carefully slide my torn, bloody clothes away from my right side to expose the still-bleeding bite. I grit my teeth as his hands work over the bite, eliciting stabs of pain in my abdomen. A hand presses down firmly on the wound and a gasp escapes me. His other hand comes to my neck, feeling my pulse race. I watch as blood oozes out between his fingers. Julian exhales sharply in frustration.

“The bleeding won’t stop…” His eye flicks around as if searching for another option, then meeting my hazy stare. For just a second, as he looks at me, I see an emotion cross over his face that I don’t understand. As quickly as it appeared, it was gone, replaced by a look of displeasure. His eye narrows. “Damn.”

As if he’s made some decision, Julian quickly draws back and strips off his stained leather gloves, stuffing them into his pockets. When his left glove comes off, I can see the dark mark of the murderer’s brand facing me. I swallow hard, beginning to remember what kind of man Vesuvia thinks he is.

My thought is interrupted when I feel an ice-cold hand press down over the open bite. The feeling sends an immediate shiver through my body.

Something about his demeanor changes. His eye is focused sharply on his hand over my wound.

“Hold still,” he commands, sternly.

Without thinking, I panic. I try weakly to push myself up. Something about his words and the iciness of his hand on my already cold body makes my heart race.

His eye widens in surprise at the unexpected movement of his patient. Julian grabs my shoulder with his free hand.

“I said…” He forces me back down to the cobblestones, pinning me firmly to the ground. “Hold still.” He looks me dead in the eye. His face is serious but I see a hint of genuine concern, like he’s asking me to work with him. With that look, I remember who I’m really with. Not the infamous death doctor of Vesuvia, but the kind person I met at the Rowdy Raven, the honest man who snuck into my shop.

Holding his gaze, I take a shaky breath and relax, making a visible effort to hold still for him. He gives me a small, relieved smile and releases my shoulder. I can still feel his right hand pressing down firmly on my side.

“That’s good. Deep breaths,” he says, comfortingly. “This will only take a minute or two.”  
His left hand slides through my damp hair to cradle the back of my head. The motion is small but feels incredibly gentle and tender to me.

Suddenly, the pain is gone. I exhale the breath I hadn’t realized I had been holding and my face falls against Julian’s arm in relief. I close my eyes. I just lie there for a few moments, breathing heavily as my body goes limp. This close to him, I can smell the faint scent of his leather gloves on his bare skin. My mind wanders to the black brand on the hand holding my head. I realize how outlandish and incredibly dangerous of a situation we are in. The smallest chuckle escapes me.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” I say smiling, my eyes still closed against Julian’s arm. I start to wonder why the pain stopped but I’m still too tired to open my eyes.

He lets out a low, short laugh. His right hand presses to my forehead, checking my temperature, then slides down to my cheek, lingering for a moment. I press into his hand. His skin isn’t as icy as it had felt before, perhaps because he had been pressing on my body. Now I just feel a pleasant coolness against my warming skin. I think I almost feel the slightest response in his hand.

“If you’re well enough to joke, you’re well enough to sit,” he says. I can hear the smile in his voice.

He pulls me up to a sitting position ever so gently and moves his left hand to my back to steady me. I cover my eyes with my hand as my head spins from movement. Julian wraps a hand gently around my wrist, feeling my pulse slowing back to normal. As I get control of my dizziness, he releases my wrist and lifts the edge of my shirt again.

Finally, I open my eyes and look down. I see his hand is pressing against my side but as he moves, I see no bite. The open, bleeding puncture marks are completely gone. Julian’s cool hand slides up slowly from my inner hip to my ribs, checking the skin one last time. I shiver again, but this time it isn’t from the cold.

He just saved my life.

The thought crosses my mind, uncalled for. I’m not sure what he did, but I know I might not have made it without him.

“At least you didn’t catch me breaking and entering this time,” he jokes back, flashing me one of his mischievous smiles. He pulls my reddened shirt back down, frowning at the amount of blood on my clothes and his hands. “You’ve got some kind of luck.”

I look up at his face and my eyes widen in shock. A complex magic mark is glowing bright white under the skin of his throat. My left hand comes up instinctively to touch it, hesitating as my index finger just brushes the glowing skin. Julian sighs.

“Ah. Do you recognize your master’s handiwork?” he asks, a shadow passing over his face as he looks away from me.

I follow his gaze to his right side. A crimson stain blossoms under his shirt, growing quickly until droplets of blood fall to the cobblestones.

My mind clears with sudden understanding. It wasn’t healing, it was empathic magic. Without thinking, I reach out to his side. He catches my hand before I can touch his wound. My wound.

“This was his parting gift to me. A curse.” He looks down at his side in distain as he presses a hand to the bleeding wound. “I’m able to take away bodily wounds, as you can see. And in return, I get to experience them for myself… ugh.”

Julian’s eyes flutter and he sways forward. I rush forward, catching his head on my shoulder and holding firm to his arms. He groans into my shirt.

“It won’t last,” he says, reassuring me. Then under his breath he whispers, “It never does…” He shifts and leans away from me. “A curse from a witch who fears commitment.” He smirks darkly. “Then again, I’ve never been bitten by a vampire eel. This might be interesting,” he says with lilt in his voice. That tone of his concerns me.

“What do you mean by ‘interesting’?” I put my face close to his, staring him straight in the eye. His brave façade cracks under my close scrutiny. He looks down at his bleeding side, conceding. He attempts to unbutton his jacket. I brush away his hands with mine and he submits to my help. He watches me closely as I undress him and expose his skin to the night air.

“Well, fate seems to keep inventing new ways to test the limits of this body,” he says, almost like he enjoys the thought. I pause, looking up at him again. I search his face, trying to understand. Does he like this? The pain?

“Now that does sound interesting,” I say, narrowing my eyes as I glean a better understanding of the doctor-turned-patient in front of me. A flirtatious glint passes across Julian’s eye.

“…Oh, it certainly can be,” he says, not breaking eye contact. His words are like an invitation. A challenge. I feel myself slowly leaning closer to him. I want that challenge. He can see I’ve taken the bait. I see his pupil dilate as he shifts forward.

Heavy footsteps echo from the adjacent alleyway. We both startle to our senses. Guards. Julian curses under his breath and grabs my hand, pulling us into another alley. He presses us into the shadow of the narrow alleyway, arms on either side of my shoulders. His body is heavy against mine, his dark coat cloaking us in the shadows. The heavy footsteps run past and begin to fade away.

I’m acutely aware of how close we are, as he presses me against the wall in the alleyway shadows. I can see him thinking, planning our next move. There’s pain on his face but it’s also mixed with the slightest grin. Noticing my stare, his grey eye locks with mine. For a breathless moment, I forget where we are as we stare at each other, bodies pressed together.

I can hear his shallow breathing as each breath passes over the skin of my ear. Our chests rise and fall against the other. His arms move closer to mine as his body arches into me. I feel myself pressing into him, my hands coming up to hold his hips. Breathlessly, longingly, he whispers my name in my ear.

He opens his mouth to say something when a crash jolts us into action. We both look up and down the alley.

“Not the time,” he says, shooting me a furtive glance. “Let’s go.”

I take his hand and we break into a run down the alley. Houses fly by in a blur as we run wildly down alleyways until I’ve thoroughly lost my sense of direction. He seems to know the route by heart. After a while, he stops suddenly.

“In we go!” By the time I turn to look at him, he’s halfway through someone’s window. As quickly as he went in, he reached out and pulled me in with him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! You can also find me and my thirstposts and writings on Tumblr as examine-me-julian


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